On the trail of Tosca in Rome — News — Royal Opera House By Gavin Plumley (Classical music blogger) 8 June 2011 at 6.59pm | 2 Comments Martina Serafin as Tosca in Tosca © ROH / Catherine Ashmore 2011 Puccini was a stickler for detail, taking great care to set his operas in exact geographic locations. When he first saw the play La Tosca, by French dramatist Victorien Sardou, in Milan in 1887, he found a golden opportunity to write a very meticulously placed opera. Although a Tuscan by birth, Puccini would have known the Italian capital well – indeed Tosca had its premiere in the city. Sardou set the action of the play in three contrasting settings: the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle; the elaborate Palazzo Farnese nearby; and the commanding Castel Sant’ Angelo over the River Tiber. These famous buildings survive to this day. So you can go and ‘recreate’ Tosca in your mind (all with the aid of a trusty MP3 player).

Since the premiere at the Teatro Constanzi in Rome, many productions have taken Sardou and Puccini at their word by replicating the exact timings and settings of the three acts and, in 1992, a performance was broadcast live from the actual locations. So visiting these sites is a great way to get to know your Tosca. St Andrew crucified, in Sant’Andrea della valle © ROH 2011 Act I – The Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle Setting the scene: Tosca opens with the escaped convict Angelotti stumbling into the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, right in the heart of Rome. He’s looking for the Capella Attavanti (the private chapel of his sister the Marchesa). On location: Angelotti must have been searching for a while, as there’s no such chapel in the church. The name was Sardou’s invention, but the chapel on which it is based is immediately to the left of the door. Coming in off the teeming main street, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, Sant’Andrea really is a quiet haven in the midst of the racket of central Rome.

The Barberini Chapel is the only private space to be hidden behind gates. Sadly, those expecting Cavaradossi’s blonde bombshell of a Madonna peering down at them with her infamous blue eyes will be disappointed. The chapel is rather dark and features more muted religious paintings. Buried in the corner of the church, it doesn’t really benefit from the streaming light of an Italian afternoon (as it must have done on the June day on which Sardou set his play). But the dark recesses in the chapel must have been perfect for Angelotti’s hiding place. And looking down the nave, towards the gruesome painting of St. Andrew’s execution on an inverted cross, you can feel the chill of Scarpia, chief of police, approaching. Act II – Palazzo Farnese Setting the scene: Once Scarpia is on to Angelotti’s scent, there’s no stopping him. But rather than pursuing the prisoner through Rome’s cobbled winding streets, he preys on Tosca’s jealousy to unlock the clues. Through Tosca he will crack her lover Cavaradossi, who he’s sure has helped Angelotti to escape.

After the scenes in the church, Scarpia retreats to his apartments in the nearby Palazzo Farnese. Tosca, something of a local celebrity, just happens to be performing in the gardens that evening. Situated between the River Tiber and the church, the Palazzo is an enormous Renaissance villa, originally built for the Farnese family, one of the most powerful and influential dynasties of the Renaissance. On location: For such a grand building, it’s unlikely that a civil servant such as Scarpia (however controlling) would have been gifted apartments in the building. Part designed by Michaelangelo, it had been the home of Cardinals and Queens, rather than policemen. But it’s an evocative edifice, framed by an impressive square. Unfortunately, nowadays, you can’t gain access to the palace unless you have business with the French, as this is where they’ve had their Roman embassy since 1874. Although Mussolini sequestered the property during his time in power, the French were allowed to stay on for the princely rent of 1 Euro a year. You can get some sense of the atmosphere of Act II when the great doors to the palace open.

There are vast courtyards stretching behind its imposing façade. And the gardens that extend at the back it would have been where Tosca sang her festive cantata in Act II (with Scarpia listening from his rooms above). But as the French diplomats leave work, throwing jackets over their shoulders and making their way to local bars just off the Campo de’ Fiori, it’s impossible to think of Scarpia torturing Caravadossi behind its closed doors. Still, on a balmy Roman evening, you can pause and imagine that you hear Tosca’s sublime ‘Vissi d’arte’, just as Scarpia does at the climax of Act II. Act III – Castel Sant’Angelo Setting the scene: The opening of the final act of Tosca is one of the most evocative in the repertoire. The pitches of the bells across Rome that can be heard at dawn are entirely accurate, notated on a trip the composer took to the city when he sat on the ramparts of the castle. A Roman poet, one Luigi Zanazzo, wrote the authentic text for the Shepherd Boy’s half-heard song. It makes for a placid opening to a violent finale.

Having got his guarantee for Cavaradossi’s release, Tosca kills Scarpia. But the joke is on her; Scarpia has not kept his promise. Cavaradossi has been imprisoned in the Castel Sant’Angelo. The imposing cylindrical building was first built as a mausoleum for the great Emperor Hadrian, around 135 AD, but it was later used as a Papal prison and is attached to the Vatican by a lengthy series of ramparts. Executions used to take place in the inner courtyard, but productions of Tosca tend to set the action right up on the battlements. The reason being that Tosca, discovering that her lover has actually been killed (rather than the fake execution for which she hoped), soon dispatches herself by leaping to her death from the roof. On location: Whatever time of day you visit (dawn feels a little merciless on a holiday), the Castel is still an imposing sight, with Peter Anton von Verschaffelt’s 1753 statue of St. Michael slaying Satan (in the figure of a dragon) dominating the skyline.

Unlike in Tosca’s time, however, when fields surrounded the Castel, the present-day rush of the cars along the riverbank disturbs anything of the eerie peace that Puccini so brilliantly captures. But with all Rome laid about before her, you still can’t imagine a more dramatic suicide than throwing yourself off this terrifying parapet. ‘O Scarpia, avanti a Dio!’ Tosca - New York City Opera Kristin Sampson Floria Tosca Praised by The New York Times as a “plush-voiced soprano” Kristin Sampson (Tosca) began the 2015-16 season with a debut at Potenza’s Teatro Francesco Stabile as Mimi in La bohème. A recent recipient of a grant from the Olga Forrai foundation, her upcoming engagements include Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana at Fondazione Teatro Goldoni in Livorno, the title role in Madama Butterfly at Teatro del Giglio in Lucca, and concert appearances in Italy and the U.S. During the 2014-15 season, Ms.

Sampson was a featured artist in American Opera Projects’ Composers and the Voice program, appeared on OPERA America’s Creators in Concert featuring the music of Tobias Picker, performed Santuzza with Opera at Florham, appeared as a featured soloist on the NYCO Renaissance Gala concert celebrating the life of the late Julius Rudel and performed in concert throughout the East Coast. She has performed in the U.S. with the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, Dicapo Opera Theatre, Augusta Opera, El Paso Opera and the National Lyric Opera among others, and internationally with the Opera Society of Hong Kong, Armel Opera Festival, National Theater of Szeged, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, and Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Latonia Moore Floria Tosca In 2012 American soprano Latonia Moore (Tosca) made an unexpected, triumphant Metropolitan Opera debut as Aïda that elicited raves from critics and audiences alike.

Since that auspicious debut she has sung Aïda at Covent Garden; the Opernhaus Zurich; Opera Australia; the New National Theatre in Tokyo; the Dallas, San Diego, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Detroit Operas; and the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony. Other recent successes include Covent Garden (Liù); Hamburg State Opera (Amelia in Un ballo in maschera and Simon Boccanegra, Cio-Cio-San); Dresden’s Semperoper (Liù, Mimi, Cio-Cio-San); and leading roles at Opera Australia, Opéra de Québec, New York City Opera and Ópera de Bilbao. She has appeared at Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York, Cincinnati Symphony, and WDR Funkhausorchester Köln; and has appeared as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony and at the Festival de Paques de Deauville. She has recorded Verdi’s Macbeth for Chandos and Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with the Vienna Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon.

Her awards include Dallas Opera’s Maria Callas Award; The Richard Tucker Foundation Grant; first prize at both the Marseilles Competition and the International Competition dell’Opera, Dresden; and winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Auditions. James Valenti Mario Cavaradossi Internationally acclaimed tenor James Valenti (Cavaradossi) has built a global reputation for his elegant musicianship, commanding stage presence, ardent vocal style and voice of warm Italianate luster. After training at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, he made his professional debut at age 25 at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, as Rodolfo in the Franco Zeffirelli production of “La Boheme.” Since his debut, he has had one successful role after another and has performed in many of the world’s most celebrated theaters including Teatro alla Scala Milan, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House London, Opera National de Paris, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Sydney Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Salzburg Festival, Deutsche Opera Berlin, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, and Opernhaus Zürich.

Engagements for the 2015/16 season include the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with the Jalisco Philharmonic, and he will be seen in the same role later this year at the Wrocław Opera in Poland. Mr. Valenti has received a number of accolades in his career, including the New York City Opera’s Outstanding Debut Artist Award in 2008, the Maria Callas Debut Artist Award in 2009 and the Richard Tucker Award in 2010. Raffaele Abete Mario Cavaradossi As the winner of the competition “Una voce per l’Arena,” tenor Raffaele Abete (Cavaradossi) made his debut at the Arena di Verona as Ismaele in Nabucco in the summer of 2015.

His other recent engagements include Romeo in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette on opening night of Arena di Verona’s 93rd Lyric season, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at Teatro Gaetano Donizetti in Bergamo, and Rodolfo in La Bohème and the Duke in Rigoletto at the prestigious Lirica in Piazza festival in Massa Marittima. Mr. Abete’s upcoming engagements include Carmen at Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Rigoletto at Teatro Filarmonico di Verona and La Traviataat the Arena di Verona. Born in Naples in 1984, Mr. Abete studied at the Conservatorio di Musica Domenico Cimarosa in Avellino under the guidance of Maestro Pasquale Tizzani. He currently resides in Milan and studies with Maestro Antonio Lemmo. Michael Chioldi Baron Scarpia Baritone Michael Chioldi (Scarpia) has received acclaim from critics and audiences worldwide for his portrayals of the dramatic baritone roles of Verdi, Puccini, and Strauss.

Recent role debuts include the title roles in Verdi’s Rigoletto with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, Macbeth with Palm Beach Opera, and Nabucco with Lyric Opera Baltimore; Conte di Luna in Il trovatore with Utah Opera; Rodrigo in Don Carlo and Renato in Un ballo in maschera with Austin Lyric Opera; Belfiore in Un giorno di regno with Odyssey Opera; and Giacomo in Giovanna D’Arco with Chicago Opera Theater. His 2014–15 season included his debut at the Royal Opera House, Muscat, as Macbeth; Scarpia at Toledo Opera; Jochanaan at Virginia Opera; and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor at New Orleans Opera. Mr. Chioldi has performed at nearly every major American opera house, including The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, and Los Angeles Opera. Signature roles include: Scarpia (Hawaii Opera Theater, Ft.

Worth Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera de Oviedo); Jochanaan (Utah Opera, Saito Kinen Festival); Enrico (Washington National Opera, Utah Opera); and Sharpless (Washington National Opera and New York City Opera in an Emmy Award-winning, Live From Lincoln Center broadcast). Carlo Guelfi Baron Scarpia Having performed at all of the world’s major opera houses, baritone Carlo Guelfi, (Scarpia) is regarded today as one of the world’s premier baritones. Born in Rome, he began his studies with his uncle Renato Guelfi at a very young age. In 1983 he won the Aureliano Pertile international vocal competition and immediately embarked on a brilliant international career.

His name soon appeared in the programs of La Scala in Milan (La Gioconda,Tosca,Adriana Lecouvreur, Aida), the Metropolitan Opera (Rigoletto, Otello), Carnegie Hall (I Puritani, Giovanna d’Arco, Ernani) Vienna State Opera (Il trovatore, Macbeth), as well as the opera houses of Rome, Florence, Bologna, Genoa, Venice, Zurich, Munich, Madrid, Barcelona the Arena di Verona, Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, Salzburg Festival, and the New National Foundation in Tokyo. Mr. Guelfi has collaborated with some of the world’s most renowned conductors including Claudio Abbado, Bruno Bartoletti, Leonard Bernstein, Semyon Bychkov, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Peter Maag, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, Michel Plasson and Christian Thielemann and has recorded on CD and DVD for the labels EMI, DECCA and RAITRADE.

Pacien Mazzagatti ( Conductor ) Heralded by Opera News as “clearly a name to watch,” conductor Pacien Mazzagatti has garnered considerable critical acclaim for his work conducting opera both in the United States and abroad. His recent notable performances in New York include leading the New York City Opera Orchestra in a Gala commemorating the life and legacy of Julius Rudel, performances of Benjamin Britten’s Turn of the Screw at Symphony Space and productions of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Saint of Bleecker Street at Dicapo Opera Theatre where he served as music director from 2006 to 2014. He has recently led performances at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, St. Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Theater, Moscow’s International House of Music, and guest conducted at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw for three consecutive seasons. He is a native of Philadelphia and holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of music. Lev Pugliese ( Stage Director ) This NYCO Renaissance production of Tosca marks the U.S. debut of Italian stage director Lev Pugliese.

He recently staged Le nozze di Figaro at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa; Aida for the Summer Opera Festival in Puglia, Don Giovanni and La bohème at the Macedonian Opera and Ballet in Skopje, Macedonia and the International Festival of Dance and Music in Bangkok. Ildikó Debrezceni ( Associate Costume designer ) Ildikó Debreczeni has been designing costumes for theater, dance and film for over 30 years. In 1995 she established elmez-Art Ltd. in her hometown of Szolnok, Hungary. Starting out with only a handful of employees producing costumes for local theaters, the company has steadily grown in size and scope. In 2007, through an association with the Armel Opera Festival, Jelmez-Art began producing costumes for foreign clients. Having quickly established an international reputation, 80% of the company’s work is now devoted to international clients.

Included among Jelmez-Art’s loyal partners are the Bayreuth Festival, Bregenz Festival, Graz Opera, Bergen National Opera, and many more opera houses in Germany, Austria, Norway, Switzerland, the USA, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland and Belgium. Susan Roth ( Lighting Designer ) Susan Roth (Lighting Designer) has designed lighting for theater, opera and dance in the US and abroad. International opera credits include Tobias Picker's Emmeline and Robert Ward's The Crucible, which were televised throughout Europe on Mezzo TV as part of the Armel Opera Festival. She has designed for a number of opera companies in the U.S. including Tampa Opera, Augusta Opera, Orlando Opera, and Toledo Opera and was resident designer for Dicapo Opera. Ms. Roth served as the lighting designer for the 75th Anniversary tour of the Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Other U.S. national theater tour credits include Dreamgirls, Cabaret, Purlie, Little Shop of Horrors, and One Mo Time. International tours include Ain’t Misbehavin', West Side Story, and Crazy for You. Ms. Roth was resident designer for the Westport Playhouse for ten years and designed the U.S.

premier of Public Enemy, a play by Kenneth Branagh; and the world premiere of Feau Follet for the Elisa Monte-Dance Company. All About Tosca Puccini's Tosca a tale of love, lust, deceit and murder Our featured opera production this spring is a sensational, multi-media staging of Puccini's dramatic & beloved masterpiece, produced in collaboration with the award winning Boston Academy of Music. Sung in Italian with English translations projected above the stage, our innovative interpretation will make this Tosca a delightful and unforgettable experience for both new opera fans and long time opera lovers. Tosca is a story of overwhelming passion amidst the perils of war. Set in Rome at the time of Napoleon�s advance on the city, the opera opens with the flight of Angelotti, an escaped political prisoner. He seeks refuge in a church where he is protected by Cavaradossi, a local artist who is also the lover of the famous singer, Floria Tosca. The young painter acts suspiciously while protecting his friend and Tosca thinks jealous thoughts, believing him unfaithful. The chief of police, Baron Scarpia, plays upon her jealousy to locate the two men, who are soon captured.

Angelotti takes his own life rather then be held prisoner and Tosca desperately begs Scarpia to spare Cavaradossi, offering her affections in exchange for his life. After securing a note saving her lover from his death sentence, she stabs Scarpia and hurries off to be with Cavaradossi. Tosca finds she has been tricked, however, and the artist dies at the hands of a firing squad. Facing capture for her crime, she leaps to her death to join her lover in the afterlife. Puccini's melodious and melo-dramatic score of love, lust and murder plays against the panoramic politics of soon-to-be Napoleon's Rome. Joseph Bascetta, Stage Director Paul Phillips, Conductor In Providence at VMA Arts and Cultural Center the history of Tosca IT'S A STORY RIGHT OUT OF HISTORY by: Lisa Kramer Reichel TOSCA is the only opera that can be tied to an exact date, time, and place. It is set at a critical time in the military campaigns of the French general (and later Emperor) Napoleon Bonaparte.

During the late 1700s, the invasion of Italy by Napoleon and his French armies resulted in the expulsion of the old dynastic rulers, including the Pope. Radical French republics or states were set up in northern Italy and in Naples. The city of Rome became the Roman Republic (of which, in TOSCA, Angelotti was a former consul). While Napoleon was in Egypt in 1799, an Austrian-Russian army defeated the French republics in Italy. Maria Carolina of Austria, the wife of the defeated King of Naples, Ferdinando IV, and sister of Marie Antoinette, inspired the Austrian reactionary party. Maria Carolina assumed the regency and began to "clean house" � eliminating thousands of republicans and liberals and anyone who had supported French rule. In the spring of 1800, Napoleon and his forces crossed over the Alps and moved to the town of Marengo in northwestern Italy. Here they were met by Austrian forces commanded by General Melas on June 14, 1800. Napoleon believed that the attack by the Austrian force was a diversion and he ordered General Desaix to continue searching for the main Austrian Force in the south.

By noon, however, with his forces falling back, Napoleon began to realize that he was losing to an all-out attack. Act One of TOSCA reflects this moment. The Sacristan announces the news of the apparent victory of the imperial forces over Napoleon. The act ends with a "Te Deum" to celebrate the triumph, and Tosca will sing that evening for the Queen herself. But the Battle of Marengo was not over. Napoleon sent a request for help to General Desaix who, returning with his troops, and at the cost of his own life, helped turn defeat into glory. During the second act of the opera, news arrives of the defeat of the monarchy. Mario's excitedly proclamation of "Victory" further angers Scarpia, who as chief of police for the monarchy, orders Mario to be dragged off to prison. This dramatic scene reflects the divided sentiments of the people of Rome, torn between their loyalty to the crown and hopes for new freedoms under Napoleon. By the end of the opera, with Napoleon's victory secure, it seems as though Mario and Angelotti will have posthumous revenge. Napoleon, however, decided to compromise with Italy's traditional rulers.

The newly elected Pope, Pius VII, regained control of the Papal States. By coincidence, the world premiere of TOSCA took place almost exactly 100 years after the historical events which form its background. Each scene in TOSCA takes place at locations that still exist in Rome today. Act I takes place in the church of Sant' Andrea della Valle, Act II at the Farnese Palace, and Act III on the roof of the Castel Sant'Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel, so-named because of the large statue added to its roof. See drawing.) This castle was built by Roman Emperor Hadrian who reigned from A.D. 117 until his death in A.D. 138. Hadrian had this monument built to be his tomb. It was the largest and grandest of all Roman tombs. Throughout the centuries, Castel Sant'Angelo has had various uses. It has been a fortress, a castle, the home of popes, and even a prison � which is how it is portrayed in TOSCA.

Although the castle has been battered in sieges, shaken by earthquakes, often flooded by the overflowing Tiber River along which it is built, and frequently changed by man, it stands as a wonderful monument to the historical glories of the past. Nicassio, Ten Things You Didn't Know About Tosca Ten Things You Didn't Know about Tosca by Susan Vandiver Nicassio author of Tosca's Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective Puccini's Tosca, one of the most popular operas in the repertoire ever since its January 14, 1900 premiere, is a violent drama based on Victorien Sardou's hit play La Tosca, which was written as a star vehicle for the famous French actress Sarah Bernhardt. In the translation from play to opera, the action was tightened, the characters were "Italianized," and most of the political motivation was cut. The action of the play and the opera takes place in Rome between noon of June 17, 1800 and dawn the following day, during which time all of the major characters die violent deaths.

Synopsis of the action: As Act I begins in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, an escaped political prisoner, Cesare Angelotti, takes refuge in a secret hiding place in the family chapel of his sister, the Marchesa Attavanti. When the painter Mario Cavaradossi arrives to work on his mural, Angelotti recognizes him as a fellow revolutionary sympathizer and asks for his help. Cavaradossi enthusiastically agrees, but conceals his involvement from his lover, the jealous opera star Floria Tosca. As a result, the sinister Baron Scarpia, Chief of Roman Police, finds it easy to arouse Tosca's suspicions of an affair between Cavaradossi and the Marchesa. When Tosca goes to find her supposedly unfaithful lover, the police follow her to Cavaradossi's country villa. Cavaradossi tells her the truth, and hurries her away before the police arrive; they arrest the painter, but are unable to find Angelotti, who is hidden in the well in the garden. Act II is set in the apartments of the Baron Scarpia at the Farnese Palace.

Cavaradossi refuses to talk, and is tortured, while the frantic Tosca tries to save him. She breaks down and betrays Angelotti's hiding place. News arrives that Bonaparte and the revolutionary armies, thought defeated, have in fact won the battle at Marengo. Cavaradossi is overjoyed, but is dragged away for execution, leaving Tosca alone with the Baron. Scarpia offers to arrange a mock execution if Tosca will agree to satisfy his lust; she agrees, but instead stabs him to death. In Act III, Cavaradossi prepares for death at the Castel Sant'Angelo. Tosca arrives and tells him that they will soon be free, but the firing squad is all too real. Tosca has only a moment of grief before the police arrive: they have found Scarpia's corpse. Evading their grasp, Tosca flings herself from the parapet of the fortressto her death. 1. The first English-language production of the play La Tosca opened in New York in 1889 and starred American actor-manager Fanny Davenport in the title role.

Although Bernhardt performed the play (in French) successfully throughout America for decades, the English version created a storm of protest. Respectable women walked out on what were described as "scenes that could not be elaborated without constant fear of police intervention." Tosca's suicide was the last straw for New Yorkers, and after the first performances the end of the play was changed: instead of leaping to her death, she was shot by the soldiers! In fact, Puccini's librettists also disliked the suicide, and an alternate ending for the opera was (briefly) considered: rather than leap, Tosca would go mad, collapse, and die on the body of her lover (presumably of Sudden Operatic Death Syndrome). 2. Although Floria Tosca is supposed to be a beloved Roman opera star, in reality it had been illegal for women to appear on the operatic stage in the papal capital from the seventeenth century until 1798about three years before Tosca is set. Roles written for women singers, and performed by them in other parts of Italy, were taken in Rome by castratos (male sopranos and altos surgically altered before adolescence so that their voices did not break).

Star castratos like Marchesi and Velluti were wildly popular with the Roman opera-going public. Moralistic revolutionaries banned the castratos when the Roman Republic took over in 1798. After the fall of the Republic in 1799, the castratos returned, but the women stayed, thus allowing singers like Floria Tosca to make their Rome debuts. 3. Although Tosca is the most famous of all "Roman" operas, none of the three major characters is Roman. For his play La Tosca, Sardou, who was careful about historical details (though often wildly inaccurate about other things), made his heroine a Venetian subject, an orphan from the city of Verona. He had a dreadful time finding a last name for her, and the one he settled on, "Tosca," is in fact a given namethere is a church of Saint Tosca in Verona.

Another factor in the French playwright's choice of a name might have been the title of an opera that was popular during the French Revolution: La LodoÅska, set to music by Cherubini and others, and performed in Rome under the Roman Republic of 1798-99. The eponymous heroine's name, Lodoïska, when pronounced in French, sounds very much like "La Tosca." 4. Sardou's hero, Mario Cavaradossi, is not even Italian by birth: he is supposed to have been born in Paris, and is visiting Rome for the first time in 1800. His father was a Roman of noble birth who left Italy as a young man and married a granddaughter of the Swiss-French philosophe, Helvetius.

Sardou, who took a great deal of trouble over the names of his characters, seems to have decided on this five-syllable name partly because it sounds rather like that of the famous painter Caravaggio; partly because it recalls Caracciolo, a Neapolitan admiral executed in 1798 for his pro-French activities; and perhaps because it is very like a noble Genoese name, Caravadossi, one of whose members was active in the Italian wars of independence in the mid-nineteenth century. 5. A 1999 production of Puccini's Tosca at the Opéra Bastille in Paris changed the character of Scarpiain Sardou's play a Sicilian police officialinto a Cardinal. The dramatic staging showed him putting on his vestments for the Te Deum while singing his first-act aria. It is a shocking idea, and historically absurdRome was not ruled by the Church in June of 1800but the characterization is in fact consonant with the bitter anti-clericalism that was typical of much of the popular theater at the time when Sardou, and later Puccini, were writing.

6. There actually is a "hiding place" in one of the chapels at Sant'Andrea della Valle. The first chapel on the left from the main entrance, the Barberini chapel, conceals in the street wall a shallow little chamber separated from the chapel proper by an ironwork grill. This is a shrine to Saint Sebastian, marking the spot where a pious Christian woman named Lucina found the entrance to the city's sewers that led her to the body of the martyr Sebastian, later buried outside the city walls in the catacomb that bears his name. It is no doubt a coincidence that the only image of the Magdalene in the church is in this Barberini chapel. It is a statue rather than a painting (like Cavaradossi's) but she is a typical Magdalene, beautiful, penitent, and half-naked with her breasts covered only by her hair and by a strategically placed cross. 7. During the time at which Tosca is set, the real city of Rome was occupied by an Allied force of Neapolitans, Austrians, Russians, Turks, and English, all at war with Republican France.

Although stage directors today often insert cowled clerics into scenes in the opera that feature police oppression, at the time when the opera is set, there was actually no ecclesiastical government in Rome. The elderly Pope (Pius VI) had been exiled from Rome in February 1798, dragged across Europe for a year and a half, and died in Valance, France on 29 August 1799. Although a treaty had been arranged whereby the newly elected Pope, Pius VII, would arrive to take over his city in early July 1800, in June the Neapolitans were still trying their best to keep control of Rome. 8. The character of Cesare Angelotti was based in part upon a sleazy Roman politician named Liborio Angelucci who, like Angelotti, was a "Consul of the late Roman Republic." Angelucci, a physician and sometime obstetrician, was typical of the Republicans in late eighteenth-century Rome, most of whom were middle-class professionals, or the sons of nobles, or intellectual and idealistic churchmen.

He had an excellent reputation as a medical man and as a scholar (he was editor of the first Roman edition of Dante's Divine Comedy), but he was in political hot water almost constantly after 1792. In 1794 he was arrested for taking part in a conspiracy against the papal government and was held for a while in the Castel Sant'Angelo; in 1797 he was in trouble again, this time accused of plotting to murder the Pope. When the French took Rome, Angelucci became one of the consuls (executives) of the Roman Republic. Unfortunately, he seems to have been primarily interested in enriching himself and his family. He was attacked in the Republican press as a thief and a false patriot and forced to resign. He fled Rome with the French armies in 1799 and did not return to Rome until 1809despite his offer to act as a spy for the new pope after 1800! 9. Puccini's sense of humor was often of the schoolboy variety, and he found risqué musical puns irresistible.

In Act II of the opera, after Spoletta has assured Scarpia that "everything is ready" for the execution of Cavaradossi, the Chief of Police turns to Tosca and softly asks, "Ebbene?""Well?" She says nothing, and the score tells us that she indicates her submission by nodding her head. But at her silent reply the orchestra, anticipating the two-note theme of the "execution" motif, plays the two-note phrase, A and C, or in Italian solfeggio, La and Do. The syllables, in addition to being musical symbols, also happen to be words in Italian: the words "La do" mean "I'm giving it," and it is the usual way for women to say, I'm ready to give "it" (to you). 10. The news of Bonaparte's surprise victory over the Allies really did reach Rome in much the way that we see it in the opera.

By mid-day on Tuesday, June 17, the Roman diarist Galimberti noted with satisfaction that "the French are beaten by General Melas, who has re-taken Milan." Galimberti reports that the Jacobins (that is, Roman Republicans like Cavaradossi) "laughed and behaved insolently on hearing this news." However, late that night he added a coda to his diary entry: "The official notices about Austrian victories over the French in Italy. . .have been amended." A second courier had arrived in the city late on the night of June 17-18 with news of Bonaparte's surprising victory. Men like Cavaradossi went wild: "[They] gathered in the fields around the Castel Sant'Angiolo [sic], dancing the Carmagnole [a revolutionary ditty], playing and singing. They got nearer and nearer the fortress; a sentry on the walls challenged them but they just kept singing, so he fired on them and they moved away." Copyright notice: © 2000 by Susan Vandiver Nicassio. This text appears on the University of Chicago Press website by permission of the author.

This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. and international copyright law and agreements, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that Susan Vandiver Nicassio and the University of Chicago Press are notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of Susan Vandiver Nicassio. Susan Vandiver Nicassio City Opera, With Tosca, Rises From Its Deathbed -- Vulture James Valenti as Mario Cavaradossi and Kristin Sampson as Tosca in the new City Opera's Tosca. Photo: Sarah Shatz Maybe I shouldn’t make too much of this, but New York City Opera is attempting to resurrect itself with an opera about a botched resurrection. NYCO Renaissance, an entity created by the hedge-fund manager Roy Niederhoffer and the director and producer Michael Capasso, recently won the right to take over the defunct company’s name (and debts). Now it hopes that a six-performance run of Puccini’s Tosca can do onstage what its lawyers accomplished in court.

Throwbacks abound. City Opera launched in 1944 with the same Puccini opera. This production re-creates the work’s 1900 premiere in Rome, right down to Tosca’s wide-brimmed hat and walking stick. The original, too, was a throwback, a Beaux-Arts invocation of Napoleonic Rome. This revival, in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, is a long-simmering nostalgia stew, with hints of Fiorello La Guardia’s New York. (The production makes one unfortunate concession to the passage of time: The top ticket price is $160; in 1944 it was $2.20, or $30 today.) The first performance reminded me of City Opera on one of its less-than-glorious nights: light on nuance, heavy on the beat, with singing that toggled between exciting and ragged, the whole thing shot through with invigorating sincerity. The baritone Michael Chioldi* held the three acts together from the middle, singing Scarpia’s Act II efflorescence of evil with a gusto that left his fellow cast members sounding pale.

Tenor James Valenti had a rich middle register but looked alarmed every time a high note came barreling toward him, making Cavaradossi come off as even more plangent than usual. Soprano Kristin Sampson, perhaps worried that she wouldn’t be heard, sang with more steel than tenderness. (A different cast alternates performances, starting tonight.) Reproducing Adolf Hohenstein’s painted flats from 116 years ago proved a self-defeating conceit, since the result looked antique without being classic. Still, I appreciate every one of those faults, because I prefer an imperfect beginning to a spectacular one-off. New York is still feeling City Opera’s loss, which no amount of Metropolitan Opera Live in HD screenings or miniature chamber-music dramas can compensate for. We’re missing out on young singers, on grand-but-not-bloated opera, on a nimble sensibility combined with defiant ambition. And so, in the final minutes, when Tosca kept shaking Cavaradossi’s body in vain, willing him to rise, I hoped along with her. If this were a movie moment, the show would be revelatory and the company’s future foregone. In real life, it’s a tentative first step.

Now there’s money to be raised, theaters to rent, casts to wrangle, and an artistic vision to shape. And then there’s the task of winning over all the pessimists who believe that their beloved company was definitely killed off in 2013 and that this new version is just a zombie pretender. When Cavaradossi stays dead, Tosca hops up to the castle parapet to hurl herself into the moat; the new New York City Opera has a steeper climb, hopefully to a happier outcome. Tosca is at the Rose Theatre at Jazz at Lincoln Center through January 24. *The reference to Michael Chioldi has been corrected. Tags:

Question: In which city is the opera Tosca set?
Answer: Rome